It is the pinnacle of open source handsets at the moment,
despite all its many well-documented shortcomings and flaws.
And despite Nokia's lipstick-on-a-pig support philosophy.
That Nokia actually did it is commendable.
Everything Nokia did afterwards is a monumental disappointment.

But that is not the end of the story,
thanks to this community and lot of people who like to dig.
The n900 is still available in some locations (not mine, last I looked)
and the Maemo system can still be hacked better than any other.

But it is the end of the line for open-source handset fever.
There will never be any truly open-source handsets,
and the n900 is as close as you can get to that particular 'holy grail'.

Android is not even a close relation in that regard,
and never will be due to it now being compromised by trojans
and all the publicity about secret tracking apps, etc.
The Android project will be burning midnight oil to shut down
loopholes in their system and in the process will lock down
a lot of bits that have previously been open to developers.

It is obvious Nokia is completely abandoning any shred of a decent open-source future.
http://www.unwiredview.com/2010/12/2...phone-devices/
A complete sell-out of the linux platform is unfolding right now at Nokia.
Anyone at Nokia involved with Meego had best be looking for a new job - fast.
The Meego stuff is getting a lot of frothy wishful-thinking fanboyisms
but the utter absence of any Meego handsets on the horizon
speaks volumes about where Nokia's Meego plans are headed.

And you can count on Nokia to never play open-source again
now that they are sharing a bed with Micro$oft.

The next open-source handset will probably be some Taiwanese
outfit unless someone else in Europe happens to bend that way.

Buy the n900 now if you think you would ever want on,
as it will be a very long time before anything anywhere near as open
ever appears on the global market, if ever again.

In a couple of years used n900s will still be selling for good money
because there will still not be anything as hackable out there.